In the present scenario, in which a multiplicity of services are offered by a plurality of service/content providers, the information relative to user, service and terminal profiles are spread over a great number of databases, and very often the same profile is doubled in two or even more distinct locations.
As an example, a user who subscribes a telephone service and an internet service (internet access, voice over IP, content access) has usually different profiles stored in different databases. In such a case the user profile is not unique, because is split at least in a “telephone profile” and an “internet profile”, and in addition the distinct profiles reside on different database servers.
A typical situation in which a single user is associated to different profiles is shown in FIG. 1. Two different services, a telephone service 2 and an internet service 4 offer services to a single user, each service has a proprietary database for storing user profiles. A first database 6 is used by the telephone service 2 for storing a telephone profile, while a second database 8 is connected to the internet service 4 for storing an internet profile for the same user.
In a system configuration as the one shown in FIG. 1 it is not possible to assure the consistency and uniqueness of the information relative to a single user, in fact a user is unable to apply the same changes to both services, for example if he wishes to redirect calls to a particular terminal, for both traditional calls and VoIP sessions.
Therefore a change in the profile information must be replicated independently on both databases, either the change is made by a user or by a network/service administrator. Such a system is therefore not easy-to-use for single users and not easy-to-manage for network/service administrators.
Considering furthermore that the number of services offered is always increasing, especially in the field of multimedia and content delivery services, it is clear that any increase in the number of databases used for storing user, service or terminal profiles, introduces difficulties in managing correctly the corresponding information.
In US2002/0073066 is disclosed a data brokerage system for selling access to data, such as data stored in a data warehouse used for example by retailers or financial institutions to store transaction information, inventory information etc. The problems addressed in US2002/0073066 are mainly the necessity to offer differentiated views over data, to track accesses and to manage different kinds of data.
In the system disclosed in US2002/0073066 the management of data is assigned to a data warehouse having a rigid structure, wherein, for example, the access technologies are not customized for different typologies of data and the reading interfaces allow the access to a limited and predetermined subset of data.
The Applicant has tackled the problem of managing more efficiently the information relative to user, service and terminal profiles in a multimedia/telecommunication environment. In a system in which the number of services offered is constantly increasing and their nature changes very frequently, the new services must be highly personalized, both by the service provider (e.g. commercial offer, provisioning and assurance) and by the end user (e.g. subscription, configuration, access). To this purpose are very important the integration of internet applications with other services, such as next generation telephony, and innovative ways of handling user, terminal and service profiles and data within the network.
The Applicant observes that, in a next generation telecommunication network, most of the data relative to personal profiles is replicated in a large number of different databases. Such redundancy does not allow an end user, as well as a service/content provider, to manage such personal information in an efficient, secure and reliable way.
The Applicant is of the opinion that, for a better data management, most of the personal profiles needed in a multimedia/telecommunication network must be managed by a logically centralized management system. The personal profiles can anyway belong to different administrative domains.
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide a device and a method for centrally managing personal profiles, assuring at the same time a high level of security as regards the access control to the databases containing such profiles in a telecommunication network.